Thursday, September 15, 2016

Telling It Like It Is ... Discreetly (alternately) A Mess of Pottage

"Everything HRC touches she kind of screws up with hubris." "I would rather not have to vote for her [Hillary Clinton], although she is a friend I respect.""A 70-year [old] person with a long track record, unbridled ambition, greedy, not transformational, with a husband still d---ing bimbos at home."

Clinton Presidential Library -- The newly-released photos underscore just how chummy GOP presidential
nominee Donald Trump once was with the president and his wife Hillary.

"No need to debate it with you now, but Trump is a national disgrace and an international pariah." "We all need to start voting for America and not our parties.""Trump is taking on water. He doesn't have a GOP philosophy or even a conservative philosophy. We need a revolution and it will begin with the GOP crashing and burning up [in] its current form.""Yup, the whole birther movement was racist. That's what the 99% believe. When Trump couldn't keep that up he said he also wanted to see if the certificate noted that he [Barack Obama] was a Muslim.""To go on and call him an idiot just emboldens him [Trump]."Former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell

So now we know that there is substance to the allegations that Moscow has embarked on a mission to upend, embarrass and humiliate the United States, highlighting the absurdity of the fact that the most powerful, influential and military nation on Earth has fielded two presidential candidates, either of whom is certain to lead the country into a cesspool of errant directions, further despoiling the reputation of a nation that has indeed had an exceptional past, an enviable place in global regard, and which has, throughout its history balanced the ill it has done with the greater good.

The past two administrations, Republican under George W. Bush, and Democratic under Barack H. Obama, has suffered more than their share of disparaging views from abroad, and criticism from within. Each has good personal qualities; each made grievous errors in judgement. Each of those presidents held out great promise for their administrations, only to be buffeted by realities that led them to make choices most of which had questionable outcomes leading to greater world instability.

Each, in their disparate ways, opposing the other, and each confident that theirs was the right decision.

What is certain to follow in the wake of the new presidency is not only more of the same, but with an emphasis on 'more' in the sense of decision-making that will become more erratic and in the end help to make the world a more dangerous place than it already is. Both candidates are hugely flawed, as
unworthily egotistical candidates whose mettle needn't be challenged for the results of their promises to be known beforehand, causing earned apprehension world-wide.

Americans deserve better, and so does the greater world community.

There is no solace in knowing that the United States of America, conventionally relied upon to intervene on the side of human rights and the sanity of decency, has itself failed to come to terms with its obligations to itself as a pluralist society comprised of human beings capable of producing great scientific advances to advantage the world, while harbouring within itself a grudging acceptance of those of shared citizenship it considers inferior on the basis of perceived inherited traits.

The U.S. has 'saved the world' in a sense in notable ways; the destruction of Nazi Germany the most notable; challenges to brutal ideologies another; reasonably balancing the lopsided non-aligned nations co-opting of the United Nations another; encouraging liberal democracy in developing nations, even more. The withdrawal of its exceptional status under the Obama administration, humbly regarding itself as a nation among nations has served to belittle it in the regard of its challengers.

Moscow feels free to disport itself with American politics gone awry, having gained confidence in Vladimir Putin's demonstrated ability to manipulate American decision-making in vital matters influencing world affairs to reflect the Kremlin's line of thinking, not that of the United States, resulting in a demoralized America and a triumphant Russia. It is a war of wits and words with deeds trailing after, in humble obedience to a tune out of a contrary ideology's playbook.

This represents a general opinion site for its author. It also offers a space for the author to record her experiences and perceptions,both personal and public. This is rendered obvious by the content contained in the blog, but the space is here inviting me to write. And so I do.